VOIP alternative to Skype

[pur...@gmail.com]

Hey guys,

we're currently running our landline via skype and have some issues
with call quality at times. we are looking to move to another VOIP
provider and were wondering if anyone out there had any
recommendations?

Cheers

Dan

[Richard Buggy]

Hey Dan

I've been using PennyTel for a few months without any issues. http://www.pennytel.com/

    Rich

--
--
Rich Buggy
ri...@buggy.id.au

[Dylan Jay]

We're using faktortel ($15 for 2 DID and free calls) in combination
with pbxes.org (freemium virtual pbx service). We're using audio by
pass to ensure the calls connect locally. We recommend faktortel for
their service and value. We're trying to sort out some occasional
quality issues with our setup however. As with all VOIP it's hard to
determine the source of quality issues as there are so many points of
failure :(


>
> Cheers
>
> Dan
> >

[Daniel Purchas]

cool thanks for the suggestions guys,

we're looking at:

My Net Fone and another one starting with V i think, will let you know which one we end up with

--
Dan Purchas
GradConnection

044 909 7781
www.gradconnection.com.au

[Dave]

Hi all,

We're also using Faktortel here (u-Law, 64kbps streams, direct IAX to
IAX trunking from a local asterisk PBX set-up here). We have internode
ADSL2+ Extreme, running at close to the max theoretical speed (I think
we're getting 22 Mbps down and just shy of 2 Mbps up). Router is a
Cisco 877-K9M. No IP QoS currently.

We have also experienced intermittent "quality" issues. As it happens,
I received an email from Fak today indicating they are bringing some
new equipment online (tonight I believe) and acknowledging some issues
recently - a first. Overall I'm marginally happy with them but I
suspect there is something going on their-end, as we are NOT bandwidth
constrained here and yet we have occasional problems.

It makes out-bound sales calls a bit tough. One of our guys got told
today "Are you on voip - because you sound like a robot!". Ouch. I'll
keep you posted on any improvements.

Dave

On Jul 13, 11:32 am, Dylan Jay <d...@pretaweb.com> wrote:

[Daniel Purchas]

By rubbish service with MyNetFone, do you mean customer service or call quality service?

A guy from Vocaltone is here demoing to us and we're trailling their call quality for a couple of days so will let you know how that goes, they have given us a handset which is not what we wanted so waiting on a PBX quote for using the phone via usb headset on the computer now...

[Dylan Jay]

On 14/07/2009, at 1:30 PM, Daniel Purchas wrote:

> By rubbish service with MyNetFone, do you mean customer service or
> call quality service?

I think it was me that said that and I meant mynetfone customer
service. Faktortel have bent over backwards to help us out.

> A guy from Vocaltone is here demoing to us and we're trailling their
> call quality for a couple of days so will let you know how that
> goes, they have given us a handset which is not what we wanted so
> waiting on a PBX quote for using the phone via usb headset on the
> computer now...

Perhaps it might help you and others to know how and why we created
our virtual pbx setup.
Initially we were attracted to the mynetfone virtual pbx but mynetfone
were very inflexible when it came to what it offered. They wouldn't
let us use softphone or our own IP hardphones with their service. So
we looked elsewhere.
What we discovered is that you can seperate out the virtual pbx
service from the VOIP provider service and save yourself money and
increase your flexibility.
We're using the free service of pbxes.org (which is just a web UI on
top of asterix). We'll soon need more than 5 extensions so we'll be
paying for it soon but it's still not expensive.
We then purchased 2 DID from faktoltel (and got them to port our
existing landline number) but it could be from anyone including
mynetfone, pennytel etc or any combination of those or any other
provider than gives you a SIP account. We enter those in as SIP trunks
on pbxes.org and set the trunks to be audio bypass so that the audio
channel doesn't go to the US and back and now we have a fully flexible
pbx for $15pm, 2 DID and unlimited local calls and 5 extensions.
We have call groups so that calls are automatically routed to mobiles
after hours or after they aren't picked up. We've got voicemail to
email. We've got our IP hardphones in the office logged into pbxes.org
as well as sjphone softphone and mobiles as extensions. It all works
reasonably well and wouldn't be too much trouble to change VOIP
providers or virtual pbx providers. There are even australian virtual
pbx providers I believe that offer free basic services.

[Geoff McQueen - Hiive Systems]

Dylan,

Thanks for the awesome insight on how you did it. How have you found your IP Hardphones, and if you like them, what model are you using and price did you pay?

Geoff

[Dylan Jay]

On 14/07/2009, at 2:43 PM, Geoff McQueen - Hiive Systems wrote:

>
> Dylan,
>
> Thanks for the awesome insight on how you did it. How have you found
> your IP Hardphones, and if you like them, what model are you using
> and price did you pay?

They are grandstream GXP-2000 and they came with the office space we
used so I've no idea of the cost. We just reprogrammed one of the
incoming lines to log into pbxes.org. Seems to work ok except they
occasionally seem to logout... but I need to look at the settings to
see if there is some reconnect feature I haven't turned on. I haven't
used other phones or these ones long enough to give a recommendation.

[David Banes]

They were about $180, but I'd recommend the later model the GXP2020,
it's much more reliable and more inline with current IP phones when it
comes to features.

David.

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[Matthieu Stone]

Hello,

Just thought that I'd pass this along.

A company I consult to had previously tried IP telephony, the IT guy had bought into the hype but did not really understand [or test] the technology.

So if anyone is looking for an asterisk server, Ploycom master handset & 29 SoundPoint IP 330 SIP handsets then there is one going quite cheaply - just make a sensible offer. I think the whole system was about $17,000 when purchased last year - its never been used. The phones are fantastic & have all the functions of a top line digital handset.

The nature of Telephony signaling & Internet data transmission are just about exactly opposite.

Telephony signally will not tolerate poor signaling quality & the networks will drop a call rather quickly if the integrity drops a bit

Internet data transmission on the other hand was specifically designed to cater for poor quality signaling & complete failure for long periods.

So we found that having a dedicated 10mbit fiber internet connection directly into Powertel's network could support 4 concurrent calls reliably. The 5th call might connect, if it did connect then there was a greater than 50% chance of anyone of the 5 calls dropping out - occasionally all calls would just die.

Not great for an outbound call centre & so it never went into production

I quite like asterisk though - very reliable & all the features you really need of a mega-dollar PBX - plus it has a very easy to use Ruby API so you build screen popping into your applications or website without to much trouble.

rgds,

- matt. 

2009/7/14 Geoff McQueen - Hiive Systems <geoff....@hiivesystems.com>

[Mark Kofahl]

SBA'ers

I have had over 2 years of very happy expierence using Asterisk in combination with Aastra handsets, fully remotely managed by Spectrum Networks with all of their great trunks. At our end we are running just residential grade SDSL 512/512 - which on the G.729ab codec theoretically supports 11 simultaneous full duplex conversations and in practice supports comfortably 7 simultaneous full-duplex conversations. You can use a regular aDSL modem router. The trick is to isolate your data and voice traffic, and the simplest way is physical separation (ie, run 2 adsl services onto 2 switches - 1 for voice and one for data - never the twain shall meet - simple and effective)

Spectrum give us full management services, call centre facilities, custom IVR, voicemail to email, SMS alert of voicemail etc etc. We have rarely had any outages.

For setup of a new Aastra, If we advise the MAC address of the phone, they'll put a config file on their TFTP server, and if your router supports TFTP advice in the DHCP (such as a Cisco 837) it will then literally self-configure as you un-shrink wrap and install.

I would recommend calling Mark Weinberger at Spectrum - real nice guys there. Mark's direct = 02 8916 8102 or 1300 133 299 if you outside Sydney and want to save $$$ - which I assume anyone interested in VOIP does :-)

Mark.

[Chris Dawes]

Are you using paid skype or free skype?  The quality of the voice is completely different. If you're on a plan it works better and also allows for HD video and better voice quality.

Also is the call quality a speed issue of your internet connection?

We use skype for business through voipline.net.au because we had issues with Optus's voip (their landline)...